Columbus East’s Izzy Wakefield controls Bloomington South’s Adrianna Burns at 155 pounds Thursday at Columbus East High School.
Nicholas Shaw | For the Republic
With Columbus East and Bloomington South tied at 36-36 at the end of Thursday’s girls wrestling dual match, the referee and coaches met at the scorers table to figure out which team would win on criteria.
Having been the beneficiary of a couple good-sportsmanlike moves from the Panthers, Olympians coach Ty Olds volunteered to allow Bloomington to take the victory.
“Bloomington South deserved to win that match,” Olds said. “They allowed me to stick (lone senior) Luci (Morales), who is injured and out for the season, in at 130 to take a forfeit on senior night, so that was a classy move on their part. Then, instead of taking a forfeit at 145, they bumped their girl up to 155 to wrestle Izzy (Wakefield). So I told them they were the winners.”
East won four matches by forfeit, the Panthers won two by forfeit and there were double-forfeits at 100 and 145. Of the six contested matches, Bloomington South won four by pin, and the Olympians captured two by pin.
Defending state team champion East was without its two returning state qualifiers, Maddie Shrader and Tienica Dits, because of injuries.
“They’re going through the same thing we’re going through,” Olds said. “We have multiple injuries. No one is going to feel sorry for us. We don’t feel sorry for us. That’s just the way it is right now. Hopefully, we’ll get some of those girls back by the end of the season.”
The Olympians’ two wins on the mat came on pins from Gloria Cloud at 125 and Wakefield at 155. Wakefield scored a second-period pin of Adrianna Burns, who had bumped up from 145 for the final match of the night.
“She actually did really well,” Olds said. “That match could have gone either way. That girl (Burns) is a pretty darn good wrestler, and it shows what Izzy has done over the course of the last season and in the offseason by working so hard. She’s just getting a lot better.”
East’s Annie Redman, ranked No. 4 at 170, won by forfeit. Lia Tomlinson (110), Breylin Rodriguez (115) and Morales (130) also won by forfeit.
“Gloria was really the only experienced girl we had wrestling tonight, so we had a lot of girls matches, getting to be in front of the crowd underneath the lights,” Olds said. “It was some of their first experience doing that. We’re coming along. Some of those girls haven’t wrestled but a few times, so I think they’re doing really well.”
